Children's Mirth
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: A random Terqua drabble, where the two of them live across the street from each other. And Aqua, upon having grown up and becoming sad that she gave up a lot of her childhood, tries to recreate it at her current age. And fortunately for her, Terra is right there beside her the whole time, to play and banter with her, and just make it all the better. Pure fluff. AU.


**Children's Mirth**

Aqua was fairly certain she shouldn't have been doing back flips the way that she was, on such a small trampoline.

The material she was jumping on was an old, rusty, brown, and tiny thing, that Aqua was more than certain was intended for small children.

But still... a girl needed to work on her acrobats every now and then, right?

And seeing as there was now a law about needing to have a fence around a normal sized trampoline—in her neck of the woods—she thought it'd probably be best to just use this small thing, secretly, before going to hide it in the garage.

Later, maybe, she'd end up buying the one she'd always dreamed of, with its accompanying fence, but this would have to do for now.

Knowing that time, and supplies—and most importantly: munny—were tight for her parents at the moment, Aqua didn't even think she could bare to bother them about it, like she had about a swimming pool just a short time earlier...

But even so, there were days when her and her parents' lack of wealth certain items could be quite disappointing, but on others… She was perfectly content, to who have been able to defy the system and have her child's trapeze.

Aqua's height and weight did worry her the slightest bit, however: the idea that she might end up tearing a hole right through it, to be exact. It wasn't something that would be too hard, the cerulean-haired girl knew—since the thing barely reached her angles, and so she wasn't its targeted audience, to say the least—but it was what it was.

After having done enough tumbles for the time being—and feeling that she'd even be fit to join the Navy or something now, if she wished it—Aqua stepped lithely off the _non_-bouncy house, and then quickly, and giddily, turned the thing on its side.

And as she pulled her garage door opener out of her jacket pocket, she began rolling it over to the large, painted white door that was her storage area, and she stared at it.

As a child, she knew she'd always loved the thing that held all of her favorite toys and sports equipment there. Perhaps it was the darkness that had held such an allure for her, since one was always drawn to what mystified them?

Or maybe it was because she'd realized it was the one area that would keep her away from her parents' prying eyes. Yes, that sounded about right.

It also could have been the surprisingly nice scent, that somehow seemed to mix the smell of her home with gasoline and oil-as well as making Aqua feel like she could be a topnotch car fixer-upper—just for being nearing it!

Blushing scarlet at that last particular thought, as it was way more in the line of something Terra might have imagined about himself, Aqua shook her head-to rid it from its weird thoughts—and ended up leaning the trampoline onto the right wall, so that it might rest.

And now, as she peered at that same wall, curiously, Aqua was bombarded with a memory she'd once had when she was younger, about... about turning this place into a personal room for her, or just a hangout for her and her fellow neighborhood kids to go to.

As it even had a door on the side, so that Aqua could easily enter it or exit it, even without its remote, she couldn't shake the feeling that it really would be the perfect arrangement. And so why she'd foregone the place until recently was still a mystery to her.

And furthermore… why had she, until recently, given up playing at such a young age? Aqua thought to herself, with a worried frown etched onto her features; her distractedness also led her to somewhat scraping her hands on the wall for her efforts.

Raising her hands up in front of her then—and noticing the bumpy, red dots that marred the skin there—she found herself recalling something else: the Velcro rackets she'd once had as a child, that would allow two children to play a different kind of tennis with it.

Like one is often to do as an adult, Aqua found she could only smile at that particular memory fondly, and to try and remember everything about it, but she... she couldn't even recall the name of the game, or the object of it; she sorely wanted to, though. She-

"Hey, Aqua. Whachu up to?" asked a certain brunet that had just strode up to her, from across the street. He was somewhat burly for his age, with kind blue eyes. Finally, he met her on Aqua's less impressive (and in dire need of a tar job) driveway. And Aqua grinned at her Terra.

…And she might have discreetly tried to make sure that no one had noted she was technically breaking the trampoline rules of her city—lest she be fined for it—but more important than all of that, Aqua saw that Terra had located some of the chalk she'd been using on her porch earlier.

She was just about to dive for it herself, or question Terra, or both, but he skillfully dodged her advance—like only he could—and somehow bonked her on the head—serving to send her reaching arm off-kilter, momentarily.

And chortling at Aqua now, as he spun the solidified dust between his fingers, Terra met the flustered Aqua with a raised eyebrow (something she was quick to scowl at), before saying, "Man, someone's embracing their inner-child today, Aqua. What gives? And... Why do I get the feeling you're purposefully avoiding looking at my house? Oh! Right. You're tryin' to hide the fact that you're a rule breaker, ain'cha?"

Ugh. Terra was mocking her again, wasn't he? Aqua wondered, as she shrunk away from his (somewhat) hurtful words, and tried to obscure her eyes from the blinding sunlight ahead.

Really, Aqua knew she shouldn't have been surprised or angry at all: she and Terra had been messing with each other from the dawning of time, after all, but there was something about Terra being so much bigger then her now, that made it seem like he was bullying, just the slightest bit. She was being stupid, she knew, but it was what it was.

Also... Aqua had to stifle a laugh for the fact that Terra was calling _her_ childish, when he'd just clapped his hands together, like a toddler might have, in thinking he'd figured out just where her thoughts had taken her to.

And maybe... maybe she shouldn't have jumped the gun in saying Terra was the bully, huh? Maybe, in reality, it was actually her.

Would the two of them ever learn? Aqua pondered, all the while that she finally opted to shut her garage, before animals could get into it, or something... after she'd swung on one of the silver pillars that held up her deck, anyway.

And actually, as she'd now taken to sitting _down_ on her tough, concrete patio, she realized that the texture of it wasn't unlike that of the rogue Terra held in his hands. Who knew? Maybe it was having been around that same area her whole life, that she'd grown to like chalk so much? Or...

Cutting her thoughts off there, before they could get any more off topic, Aqua regarded Terra with an exasperated sigh, before explaining, "Since I'm cheating the system, and using my old trampoline, it's left me feeling kinda nostalgic… I know I'm mostly too old for this stuff now, but I quit playing games long before I should have, and now... now I can't help but wonder why I did that. Now I feel like I wasted a childhood that I can't get back, y'know?"

As it was, Aqua needn't have even worried about getting lost in her melancholy thoughts, about how adults always wished for the past, and children always longed for the future, because before she could even really process it, Terra was acting just like the big child that she'd always loved him for being.

He'd flecked some chalk dust into her face, and as Aqua recognized that it was the pink variation of it that was the offender, she knew immediately what his actions had been in retribution for.

She'd never outlive his hatred, for the one time she and her friends had put "makeup made out of chalk" onto Terra's face, would she?

And now... now Terra was making Aqua "blush pink" herself, to show her just how wrong she'd been for her actions back then.

And yep, Aqua told herself—as she wet her fingers with her tongue so that she could wash her face off—this substance was just as thick, uncomfortable, and pore clogging as any sort of foundation would have been.

"Umm... Terra," Aqua lamented, upon reaching ahead of her to grab onto Terra's hands—so that she might make him crash into the column on the porch, or into the grass directly below them, in her own kind of revenge. "Not that I don't like these 'blasts from the past'—and I suppose I specifically deserved this last thing, for having traumatized your nine-year-old self—but is there a reason that you had to get back at me with that saw dust now?" Aqua asked, as she leaned into Terra, and tried her best to blink owlishly and cutely, as to guilt trip him.

And though Terra did, in fact, move closer to Aqua—and even brushed his fingers against the her lips, so that small goose bumps raised atop her skin—it seemed he wasn't fooled in the slightest.

Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest, and seemed to look at Aqua in disbelief (at which Aqua slumped down the slightest bit, feeling self-conscious). "'Saw dust'? Really, Aqua? That's so not what I just threw at you.

"Or, you know... don't act like I threw you under a woodchopper, or anything like that. You getting 'make-upped' was far over due, if I say so myself. Besides," he continued on, seeming a little repentant now, as he bashfully kept his eyes away from Aqua's own. "You wear makeup all the time, so it couldn't have been too different or too bad from that, right?"

Yeah, there was no denying that Terra was _such_ a charmer, Aqua admitted to herself, as she laughed uproariously, and tried to hide the fact she thought Terra's anger was really very cute. (She knew he'd really give it to her then, if he knew that she thought that), but she supposed that was why she loved him so.

He was hammy and cheesy, and well... Aqua appreciated that. She appreciated that Terra—somehow—was as awkward about relationships as she herself was, and that they were equals in more ways than one.

But still... there were some moments, where Aqua wished Terra wasn't so uncouth, but then again... Terra's imperfections were what Aqua loved the most about her boyfriend. Terra's flaws were what made him Terra to her, and in the end... that was how he _was_ perfect to her.

But even so, she couldn't resist teasing him. Just a little bit. Moving from where she'd been perched, as that had been getting quite uncomfortable, Aqua sprung down in order to stand alongside where Terra was. And then: "You never did tell me why you came over here, Terra. Did you come to spy on me again, or something? I know you liked to come seem me when my hair was wet—as how that apparently fit my name—back when we were seven, or something."

"Shut up, Aqua. That was one time, and we were kids! And for that comment, little missy, I might just break your trampoline. I was goin' to fix it into something bigger and better for you, if the price had been right, but now I guess we'll never know, will we?" Terra ended up outwitting Aqua, whilst he put his hands on his hips and gazed at her, haughtily.

And at once, Aqua found herself wanting to yell at him, for threatening her dear trapeze that she loved so much. But upon realizing that this was just so them—and the kind of childish games she'd been missing, actually—Aqua instead began laughing with mirth.

And though he looked at her questioningly at first, as if she'd lost her mind, it didn't take Terra too much time to join in, too—him putting his arm around Aqua as he did so, so they could end up rolling on the ground, like weird misfits, in each other's arms.

**Author's Note: A story I wrote about three years ago, that I thought I'd share with y'all now, seeing as how my grandmother just passed away…**

**She and I were really close—and some of the things in here are based on some things that happened when we were together, back when I'd spend time with her in the neighborhood—so I thought it'd be nice to post this now, in a sort of tribute to her. I don't know…**

**Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you guys liked it…**


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